WORDS FOR THE WISE
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight, O Lord."
Psalm 19.14
A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Proverbs 15.1
If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man(!).
James 3.2
King David, called "a man after God's own heart," messed up.
Badly! More than once!
The worst we are told about is found in 2 Samuel 11-19, nine chapters about two really bad messes he got into and created for himself and others.
He wrote Psalm 51 in his repenentance in order to move on with God.
This Psalm is a thorough look at how we "mess up" and what God does to "straighten up" behind us.
"MESSING UP"
David uses four words (combined total of 13) to describe what he had done. He used these words to describe what he had done. These four words enabled him to understand the awful attitudes and the tragic results in the lives of others.
They will help us see the attitudes and the consequences of what we say and do,
too.
(In order to follow the words as David uses them, I am using the NIV.)
V1--"Blot out my transgressions." Hebrew: "Peshah"
"Peshah" means that our consistent failures come from an unwillingness to take responsibility and make the effort to change. It is going wrong ways, "crossing boundaries where God has said, "No Trespassing." It is therefore, "rebellion" against the rightful order of the universe, God's Kingdom.
To make mistakes is part of who we are, saved or unsaved. To continue to make mistakes and justify them, however, is "foolish," according to Proverbs.
Rebellious, irresponsibe behavior brings many, many disastrous consequences. Such heedless selfishness brings trouble and downfall to others around us.
David paid dearly for his fooish choices.
Others suffered because of him.
We, too, pay dearly for our ignorance, selfishness, complacency, justification, rationalization, and all the rest that we use to take what we want with no regard to our future hopes and dreams and how are selfishness hurts and denies others.
V.2a--"Wash away all my iniquity." Hebrew: "Avon"
"Iniquity" is not your every day household word! This Hebrew word describes cruel pain that results from having a joint twisted out of place. When we rebel against God in our "transgressions," our selfish determination to get what we want no matter what it will cost us and others in the long run, we are twisting, and breaking every law of God into cruel whirlwinds of destruction, shame, pain, and death.
Think of the consequences of the selfishness of adults and the neglect of children; or, our world's greedy, corrupt pursuit of power, possessions, and positions and the wars, lies, and financial chaos and suffering of their victims.
Then consider James 3.13-4.8
Iniquity is about twisting, manipulating, deceiving, lying words and behaviors, and crushing people mercilessly in the process. It's about "me and mine," about doing and getting "what I want," no matter how much it hurts you or denies you the gifts of grace, truth, and love that you need deserve from me.
V.2b--"Cleanse me from my sin." Hebrew: "Chata"
This word is the basic word for "sin" in all the Old Testament. In one way or another, every form of wrong doing and its consequences is called "sin" in our translations. Its meaning is very commonplace, not as horrid as we generally think when we hear the term. The horror of the word is part of its meaning, but is starts with little thing--"to miss the mark," something we do all day long in many different ways. I "missed the mark" of a friend's coffee cup yesterday morning. I once missed the glass of a friend and poured ice water down the back of a lady I had never met before--she did not take well to my inaccuracy.
"Chata" is identical to the New Testament's basic word for sin which is explained in a famous phrase as to "come short." To miss and come short of what God wants for us, for our well-being and for our value to one another and our worth to His kingdom, for our happiness and peace, to miss the infinite love of God filling our hearts with grace and realization of His own gloriousness--to miss and come short of all this and of "great and mighty things which we know not," of things that "are exceedingly, aboundantly above all that we can ask or think--this is sin!
When we foolishly ignor all that God has made possible for us we are left with only the empty husks of the pigs' slop. I watched my grandfather "slop the hogs" and then went in and sat down to my grandmother's incredible breakfasts and suppers. Quite a difference! This is exactly God's point.
When Ezekiel saw the difference, he cried out to people, "The soul that sins will die! Turn from your sin and live! Why do you choose to die!"
v. 4b--The last word is Evil--"Against You and You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight." Hebrew: "Ra"
"Ra" focuses on the destructive consequences of the many ways we sin and fail. Proverbs lists about 1,000 consequences, immeidate and long range. To ourselves and to others who are carried down with us, or knocked down by us.
The Hebrew dictionaries define "Ra" as "destruction, damage, calamity; to cause bad things to happen ."
If we were in touch with Jesus, we would not ask, "Why does God let bad things happen to good people?" We would recognize the bad things are done and caused by people neglecting and hurting one another every day, not by God's indifference.
The Old Testament tells about the consequences of
1. consicous disobedience and rebellion,
2. of lying, cheating, deceiving, manipulating,
3. of even simple faults and failings that are not corrected, and
4. of the incredible suffering, pain, hardship, and heartache this world brings upon people.
We are all victims of Satan's malice, but we can become freed from his powers in, through, and with Jesus Christ. Then, we can be deliverers of hope and help.
Just as Jesus, our Great and Good Shelpherd, gets us through the hard places and valleys, with goodness and mercy to restore us day by day, so we can serve Him by bringing good and mercy to others as long as we live.
The House of the Lord will welcome us when we can longer go on here.
To be continued as "How God Straigthens us up."
