Daily Devotion

May 1, 2006

Psa 119:139 My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.

David grieved to the point of self-consumption when he saw people who should have known better, forget the Lord who has made them, and act in disregard of His goodness and wholesomeness.  David’s zeal for following the Lord was like a consuming fire within him (Heb 12:29). His enemies were the ungodly. They were not defined by the prejudice of geographical boundaries or by religious sectarianism; they were simply people who despised God’s Words no matter who they were.  They hated his godliness because he hated their ungodliness.

Today, there is a crowd of those with  “victim mentality” who’d rather find fault in God than change their twisted behavior—those would brand someone projecting this attitude as self-righteous and intolerant.  The disheartening element in this is that Christians who would be of good reputation rather than stand for God’s standards, respond to this emotional black-mail by lowering the concept of Godliness.  They also adapt Godliness to a man-pleasing ritualistic and/or humanistic form.

The whole idea is not about how much you hate evil, which is nevertheless the fear of the Lord (Pro 8:13), but it is all in how much you love God.  Just like when you really love someone, you think that they are the best of the best in the world, and you feel grieved if someone else doesn’t like them.  

Psa 97:10  Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Patrick Lumbroso
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