Adrift - from rituals to hypocrisy

Here's the next section of our psalm:

To the wicked, however, God says,

“What right have you to recite My statutes

and to bear My covenant on your lips?

17For you hate My instruction

and cast My words behind you.

18When you see a thief, you befriend him,

and throw in your lot with adulterers.

19You unleash your mouth for evil

and unharness your tongue for deceit.

20You sit and malign your brother;

you slander your own mother’s son.

21You have done these things, and I kept silent;

you thought I was  just like you.

But now I rebuke you

and accuse you to your face.

We are still in the courtroom, but another group of defendants has been summoned to the stand. God is calling the "wicked" to answer His questions, now. These are the hypocrites, who can quote God's statutes and words and who claim to be pious people - His covenant people - but they are tolerating sin in their lives. We saw that the folks who were stuck on rituals needed to remember that God must be worshiped in spirit and truth. These hypocrites need to be reminded that God is holy and that they must worship Him with obedient hearts.

We can see that the danger of continuing in ritualism, instead of heartfelt worship, is that we can drift into disobedient thinking and living. But in order to keep up appearances, so that no one else will know, we continue with the rituals.  This was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in Jesus' day. For example, they didn't want to "defile" themselves by going into Pilate's courtyard, but at the same time they whipped up a mob and crucified the innocent Lamb of God.  (We can check that out in John 18.)

Let's look back at our psalm for some wisdom to apply to our own lives.

God says in verse seventeen that the wicked people "hate instruction" and that they "cast" His Words behind them. The words "instruction" and "discipline" are often used in Proverbs interchangeably, in the sense of disciplining the mind through wisdom.....correction through instruction. It implies that we as humans need to change. That's never a comfortable thought, right? But it means that when we read God's Word or we hear it preached, we should not shrug it off. We should not look around in pride and think, "That applies to a lot of them, not to me." That would be casting His Word behind us. 
Instead, we need to take His Word to heart and correct anything that is wrong in our thinking, our relationships, and our behavior. We all have "blind spots." God's Word is like a mirror to show us the smudges and smears that we need to clean up -- we should use it often! That way we will not be like the religious people God is talking to here; we will not cast His Word behind us.

In verse eighteen, God tells them (and us) that tolerance of sin in others isn't much different than engaging in sin ourselves. These people may not have engaged in adultery or theft themselves, but they were pleased to nurture relationships with such people, to have them as friends. Then they got puffed up with pride that they were not judgmental; they were tolerant. See how open-minded they were?  

Oy vey.

God knew their hearts. And He knows our hearts. God knows when people secretly enjoy hearing stories of greed or sexual sin. In our day, this would include watching movies with graphic sex scenes. These are not the images that will edify us and inspire us to work for His kingdom.  

In verses nineteen and twenty, we see that the hypocrites also engaged in deception, and even in slander. They had no limits, apparently, even slandering and lying about close family members. (Oh, does this sound familiar to what is happening in our world today? Yep.) It's amazing to see how professing Christians will engage in "sins of the tongue" without a single regret or a twinge of conscience. Oh, yes, they are familiar with the many verses in scripture that forbid gossip, slander, and lying - but that doesn't seem to faze them.

Verse twenty-one is a doozy.  This probably brought many of these hypocrite believers to their knees in repentance. It should give all of us a pause for serious thought . . . .

God says, "You have done these things and I kept silent; you thought I was just like you." BOOM! These people mistook God's patience for His approval of their evil deeds. They must have thought that God was a "good ole boy" just like them . . . since He had not yet judged them, He must not mind a dirty joke or two. He must not be upset if they listened to tales of greed and corruption, and clapped the thieves on the back in approval. He must understand that we all have to tell lies once in a while.  Since their "god" was just like they were, they could go on living in sin, just like they had been doing.

We humans are prone to invent God in our own image - that way we don't have to deal with our sins.  It's safe to say that if our "god" is just like we are, then he is NOT the God of the Bible!!

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
         Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
         So are My ways higher than your ways
         And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9)

God is holy. He is patient. And in the close of the psalm, He gives a final appeal to both groups.