Scripture
Psalms: 95* & 69 & 73
OT: Jer. 5:1-9
NT: Rom. 2:25––3:18
Gospel: John 5:30-47
Reflection
When you are in the midst of a rough patch who do you blame? We all go through times where it seems like the world is against us. Relationships get hard. Work conversations don’t go as planned. There is strife in our marriage or with our children. Sometimes it just feels like everyone is out to get us. When you’re in the midst of those kinds of times, who do you blame?
Usually, we cry out to God for help and simultaneously we blame him. “God you’re all powerful, why aren’t you bringing me out of this? Why aren’t you handling my enemies? Maybe you’re not all that powerful. Maybe you don’t care. But, either way, I can’t believe you’re doing this to me God!”
You’ve had conversations like that haven’t you? I know I have.
When I read the psalms I am amazed by the brutal honesty of the writers. Then there are times when I am undone by their humility.
Check out these stanzas from Psalm 69, it was written by King David,
Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying out;
my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
with waiting for my God.
More in number than the hairs of my head
are those who hate me without cause;
mighty are those who would destroy me,
those who attack me with lies.
What I did not steal
must I now restore?
O God, you know my folly;
the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you. (Psalm 69:1-5, ESV)
David is not in a good place. He feels like he is drowning in despair. He feels like he is near death. David’s world is coming undone and his cry? “Save me O God!” He is apparently being slandered in some way. His enemies are out to get him.
What lays me bare are the last two lines. “O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.” There is no pretense in David. While his enemies are lying about him and he is in a bad place, he owns his sin. There is no hiding. He doesn’t try to make himself look better to leverage himself over his enemies. No, David says that his sin is known to God. He isn’t perfect. He takes ownership.
What about us? When things are going bad do we first take a real honest look at our own lives? Do we understand the role we play in our own circumstances? Will we make the change that is necessary? Do we bring it into the light and confess it to God or do we hide?
