May 29 Daily Devotional

There Is None Righteous: A Meditation on the Tenth Psalm

Psalm 10

1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.
7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
10 He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.
13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
16 The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.
17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

Devotional

(continued)

God Sees

God does see and know all the wicked ways of man. Who can be in doubt of it? God says, "I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right." While His eyes do not look down with favor they see with abhorrence, and while His ears do not hear to help they are open to the cry of the wronged. "Cease to do evil", God says, "learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow."

A cry goes up to heaven against such on the part of the righteous. It is in God to punish the wicked. It is right to deal with the wicked just as they deserve, and nothing will be left unpunished. But how much more will God execute judgment when He hears the cry of the righteous who suffer at their wicked hands ! Upon them He has set His love before the foundation of the world. Sooner will He overturn the world than that they should go unavenged.

One cannot seek after God without seeking after His ways, and few indeed are those who seek after God. "For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely."

Are there not warnings? God's Word is full of them, yet men still persist in their ways even though "it taketh away the life of the owners thereof."

Are we so low that truth and right do not have weight with us? Are we artful and underhanded in our doings ? Are we unmindful of God's righteous judgments and, like the fool of the parable of Jesus, calculate only the life that is now? Is it possible for God to forget our wickedness? No, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Who Is Blameless?

And now someone may say, "Why prod me with such inquiries? Such questions are proper for those who have not tasted of the grace of God, but not for me." Let such know that they have not tasted of God's grace at all. Those who rejoice in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ are not indifferent about the deceitful works of iniquity. They have been delivered from sin by the efficacious work of Christ upon the cross. They do not sin that grace may abound, but in their inmost souls they abhor it. Show yourself, then, to be a true believer in Christ and a recipient of His redeeming grace by repenting of your doings that are contrary to God's commandments and by walking in the ways of right, truth, honor, and love.

True, it is not pleasant to hear these things about our "dear" selves. But what God says about us is true, and according to truth only can we stand before Him.

Now let no one begin to cast off his sins in self-righteousness. This will never do. God looketh upon the heart and not upon the outward appearance. He demands a perfect righteousness from within. This is unattainable in man's own self. He must seek it elsewhere. No man has ever found it in dead works, which are as filthy rags in His sight. But there is a place of perfect righteousness and acceptance of our persons. It is in the satisfaction for sin which the Lord Jesus made upon the cross.

May God's holy and righteous demands of us cause us to fly to the Saviour who is plenteous in grace and redemption.