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TechnoratiI’m making my way through the double Samuels and really enjoying my time with King David. What a stud. He served God passionately and, when he messed up, he messed up royally and, when he repented, he came back totally.
While I’m sloshing through the Samuels in my devos I’m also enjoying a series that my church is doing on the Psalms. It’s a pretty cool combo. I get to enjoy David’s story during the week and get to hear his poetry on the weekends.
David was a passionate guy. He was passionately in love with God and, because of that, he passionately hated sin (most of the time anyway.) There is a law of physics that states “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
In the world of “spiritual physics” this is just as true. David’s passionate love for God led to the equal and opposite reaction of his passionate hatred for sin. Don’t believe me? Check out David’s cool and cryptic poetry in Psalm 101. It is spiritual physics in motion,
“I will sing of your love and justice;
to you, O LORD, I will sing praise.
I will be careful to lead a blameless life-
when will you come to me?
I will walk in my house
with blameless heart.
I will set before my eyes
no vile thing.
The deeds of faithless men I hate;
they will not cling to me.
Men of perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will have nothing to do with evil.
Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret,
him will I put to silence;
whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart,
him will I not endure.
My eyes will be on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he whose walk is blameless
will minister to me.
No one who practices deceit
will dwell in my house;
no one who speaks falsely
will stand in my presence.
Every morning I will put to silence
all the wicked in the land;
I will cut off every evildoer
from the city of the LORD.”
So after reading this I have to ask myself how much I truly hate sin in my own life and in my culture. What makes this a tough question is that my love for God reflects itself, not just in love for others, but in sheer and utter rage toward sin. Am I enraged at sin in my own life? Do I get angry when I look at the hedonistic sexuality of the culture that I live in? Am I willing to, like David, take action not with a sword and a spear (different time and different culture) but with the gospel of Jesus and with prayer? Am I willing to look deep inside to see what sins I am harboring that I need to take down with a sling, a stone and the cross of Christ? Am I angry at my sins or am I just against them because I am supposed to be?
Are you?
What does Psalm 101 call us to do? Love God. Get mad. Take action. It doesn’t take a physicist to figure that out.
Greg Stier is the President and Founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries in Arvada, Colo., where he works with youth leaders and students, equipping them to be effective in sharing the gospel. With experience as a senior teaching pastor and in youth ministry for almost 20 years, Greg has a reputation of knowing and relating to today
