The themes of our readings in the Psalms today are focused on the lies of evil people, the wars waged by the wicked and the perspective that God’s people are to have in the midst of it all.
In Psalm 120 the psalmist was in great distress over the deception of people plotting against him. Maybe you have been a victim in the past of deception from people you thought were your friends that you could trust but were betrayed by them. If so, remember that God knows the truth and is the one who administers justice. But also remember that the betrayal and injustice that Christ endured for us was of infinite proportions compared to the injustice we may have suffered at the hands of evil men.
God is sovereign over all of our situations. In Psalm 121 we read in verse 8 that “The LORD will £guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.” We live in a world of sin whether it is coming from other people (the world), from Satan (the devil) or even from the battle with sin from within ourselves (the flesh). But we must remember that God is sovereign over it all and will administer perfect justice for all of the sin committed by people, lying included. Again we need to look to Christ and understand that if not for His willing atonement on the cross for us we would be judged for every lie that we have committed towards others. It puts lying in a whole different perspective.
David in Psalm 143:2 understands this when he writes “and do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no man living is righteous.”
Where there is sin there is war. Sin is enmity towards God. The Puritan, John Owen, said that enmity is like a war between two parties (God and sin) where there can never be a compromise, a truce, or any form of peace because the two are so completely opposed to each other. That is characteristic of the enmity between God and sin. God is perfectly holy and sin is perfectly unholy. So there will always be war as long as sin exists in the world, whether it’s literal war as in Iraq or a spiritual war within our selves. But the believer has great comfort when it comes to dealing with the wars surrounding us. The Prince of Peace has come to redeem and establish perfect peace, here and now. It is the peace between God and man. Christ has reconciled us to God so that the enmity of sin has been removed and we are declared righteous through Christ. Because of this we can truly say as David says in Psalm 144:15b “How blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!"
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