Psalm 1 gives a strong and some might say idealistic view of being righteous and being wicked. For the righteous, everything they do prospers and for the wicked, they vanish like chaff. Chaff is the leftover husk of wheat and in David’s time, it was gathered up and thrown into the fire. Chaff is also so light, the wind can carry it away so that it is never seen again. This is a very nice sentiment, however, I know very godly and righteous people who have had hard lives. Then we look at the lives of greedy ambitious people, like some politicians, and they seem to go and go and go like the energizer bunny. The wicked seem to have long, comfort filled lives.
The answer to this problem is rather simple, if not satisfying. The Psalms, especially Psalm 1 presents God’s standard, the way it is supposed to be, the way it is in a perfect world. But this is not how the real world works. The conflict between ideal and reality is echoed in the book of Habakkuk. The prophet sees the evil in Israel and how the corrupt get rich and live long happy lives and the righteous are all but forgotten. Habakkuk cries out to God because this is not the way it is supposed to be. He cries “How long” will this go on.
God’s answer to Habakkuk is that he is going to send the Babylonians to punish Israel. The very evil and ruthless Babylonians are God’s hand of justice on the people of Israel. Then God will punish the Babylonians for their evil. God says it best when he tells Habakkuk that it is all taken care of but he won’t believe what God is going to do.
God’s perfect standard is presented in Psalm 1, but this is not how the world really works. This causes a disconnect or a distortion in our thinking. If we keep our eyes on the world, we are left with the same conclusion as Solomon when he announced, “vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” But we cannot stop there. The believer who stops in the vanity of it all will move farther and father away from God. Christians need to understand that the world is broken and trying to serve God in the worldly systems will end up in vanity. We do not expect reward for good works today. We do not expect people to cheer our righteousness and our love. We may want it, but we know, as Christ said, if the world rewards us today, God will not reward us tomorrow.
Our eyes are always on God and on tomorrow. We live for eternity. The evil may seem happy and comfortable, but their short time of comfort now will be followed by an eternity of torment. Live for Christ and pay no attention to the world and its systems.
Go serve your king!
The answer to this problem is rather simple, if not satisfying. The Psalms, especially Psalm 1 presents God’s standard, the way it is supposed to be, the way it is in a perfect world. But this is not how the real world works. The conflict between ideal and reality is echoed in the book of Habakkuk. The prophet sees the evil in Israel and how the corrupt get rich and live long happy lives and the righteous are all but forgotten. Habakkuk cries out to God because this is not the way it is supposed to be. He cries “How long” will this go on. God’s answer to Habakkuk is that he is going to send the Babylonians to punish Israel. The very evil and ruthless Babylonians are God’s hand of justice on the people of Israel. Then God will punish the Babylonians for their evil. God says it best when he tells Habakkuk that it is all taken care of but he won’t believe what God is going to do.
God’s perfect standard is presented in Psalm 1, but this is not how the world really works. This causes a disconnect or a distortion in our thinking. If we keep our eyes on the world, we are left with the same conclusion as Solomon when he announced, “vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” But we cannot stop there. The believer who stops in the vanity of it all will move farther and father away from God. Christians need to understand that the world is broken and trying to serve God in the worldly systems will end up in vanity. We do not expect reward for good works today. We do not expect people to cheer our righteousness and our love. We may want it, but we know, as Christ said, if the world rewards us today, God will not reward us tomorrow.
Our eyes are always on God and on tomorrow. We live for eternity. The evil may seem happy and comfortable, but their short time of comfort now will be followed by an eternity of torment. Live for Christ and pay no attention to the world and its systems.
Go serve your king!
Comments
Post a Comment