Day 14
Psalm 12:7-8
All of Psalm 12 describes a time when those who are committed to God are deeply troubled by the ungodly activity of wicked people. God’s people have always experienced this, but in the last days before Christ returns these conditions will be very common and deeply rooted among humankind. However, Christ’s followers have the assurance that God’s power and presence will protect them when evil is at its worst. God will “keep us safe and protect us from such people forever” (verse 7 NIV), which leads us into the part of this psalm that we are going to be focusing on. We are going to be focusing on the last two verse of this psalm, verses 7-8 which say:
You, LORD, will guard us;
you will protect us from this generation forever.
The wicked prowl all around,
and what is worthless is exalted by the human race. (CSB)
The Lord will “protect” his own, while “the wicked prowl”. The Hebrew word translated “prowl” is a common word for “walk”, but in this form it expresses the idea of walking back and forth when combined with “all around”, it means to walk around with wicked intentions. Which means that “the wicked” in our society are walking around actively looking for ways to (1) stop believers from fulfilling their God given purposes and (2) prevent those who have no relationship with God from ever having a relationship with God. That is why Peter in 1 Peter 5:8-9 gives us this warning, “Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.”
However, this is not the only thing that “the wicked” in our society do. They also “exalt” what is worthless. In other words they give weight, worth and value to those things that they should not be giving weight, worth and/or value. You must remember that in both Hebrew and Greek the words that we translate as “honor” or “exalt” literally translate as to give weight, worth or value. Which means “the wicked” in society are not giving honor to God, which shows the extent of the influence of sin in out society. And ultimately God is not going to tolerate those who put weight, worth and/or value on that which is worthless. Which simply means that “the wicked” in our society will eventually get what is coming to them, but not on our time table. We must remember that God will make all things right in his time, we just have to trust him.
Tomorrow’s Bible Readings:
Genesis 31:17-32:12, Matthew 10:24-11:6, Psalm 13:1-6 and Proverbs 3:16-18