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Wow, Father! I love Your words here, and I love the
accountability challenge You set forth in this psalm!
“I will be careful to live an innocent life. When will You
come to me?” We never know when Christ will
be returning, and this reminds me so much that we should “live like we’re
leaving today.” An innocent life doesn’t just happen. It takes careful diligence to accomplish,
much like what someone has to do when dieting.
The movie “A Beautiful Mind” featured a character who said he had to stay
on “a diet of the mind,” careful not to let certain thoughts in, because those
thoughts would cause his downfall – almost like ingesting poison.
“I will live an innocent life in my house. I will not look
at anything wicked.” This spoke of diligence
in our private lives – in our homes,
where no one else sees what we do. I’ve
always remembered a quote a read years ago:
“The true measure of a man’s character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.” And although a man is free to do what he
wants on his own property (and King David certainly could), it’s vitally
important to set boundaries we will not
cross, including not looking at
anything wicked.
“Those who turn against You will not be found near me. Let those who want to do wrong stay away from
me.” What we do alone has already been
discussed. Now David addresses who we
associate with, and Christian brothers are to lift each other up. Although we want to influence the lives of
those who don’t yet know God, we have to be careful not to let their choices
rub off on us.
“I will have nothing to do with evil.” We have to draw a line in the sand and determine
that anything that goes against God’s Word or His will shall have no part in
our lives.
“No one who is dishonest will live in my house; no liars
will stay around me.” My commentary
said, “Deception is the devil’s tool,
and Satan goes to work whenever a lie moves in.” Deception is so overpowering for us. If we give Satan a chance to grab a toehold
in our lives, the first thing he does is try to put blinders on us, and before
long, it’s like we see the world through a helmet with a widescreen TV screen
and surround sound inside, showing us the world as Satan wants us to see it, not as God does. Satan will then block out anything anyone
tries to show us or tell us in the hopes of undermining his influence. Only God’s direct intervention can force him
to get out of the way for a moment so that we can see God’s truth.
The sidebar of my Bible happened to be by the same man who
wrote my commentary – Warren Wiersbe. It
said, “At some point in life, each one of us must decide what is his highest joy, for the thing that delights us directs us. Generally
speaking, a child finds his delight
in what he has; a youth in what he does; and an adult in what he is. The first lives for possessions, the second for experiences,
and the third for character.”
Finally, my commentary warned, “The heart and the eyes work
together, for what the heart loves,
the eyes will seek and find.”
Father, this world of sin is poisonous to us. In Your
love for us, You show us how to detect that poison and avoid it altogether, yet
we still have bodies and minds that are made of flesh and purposefully seek it
out, to our own destruction! Speak loudly, Father! Don’t let our consciences get seared to the
point that they no longer work. And if
they do, remove Satan’s blinders from our eyes so that we may see what we are doing to ourselves.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
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