Rev. Don Campbell
Psalms 50, 53,60, 75
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, May 10, 2019
“PROFESSING AND PRACTICAL ATHEISTS”
David declares, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good” (Psalm 53:1). It is just as bad—perhaps worse—to profess to know God but in works deny him: “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work” (Titus 1:16).
In Psalm 50, Asaph challenges practical atheists: “But to the wicked God says: ‘What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?
For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers. You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son” (vv.16-20). Many pulpits would erupt with dire warnings of divine judgment should an openly avowed atheist run for president but have no qualms about actively supporting those who proudly practice the sins cataloged by Asaph. Not only so, but from the same pulpit, they promote the candidate as God’s anointed.
In Psalm 60, the salvation of man is declared vain (v.11). Read Revelation 18 to see the end of those who turn religion into a whore in support of carnal power. Don’t overlook God’s word to his people: “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (vv.4-5). In modern history The Russian Orthodox Church became the handmaiden of the state, losing its moral voice, helping to usher in the communist reign. The German Evangelical Church became the handmaiden of Nazism, helping fuel Hitler’s drive to rule the world. While rightly protesting abortion, the evangelical churches of America lose their moral voices when they become the handmaiden of right-wing neo-conservatism, which believes it is America’s manifest destiny to rule the world as God’s chosen nation, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of children in Yemen, Iraq, and other hotspots of the world.
Yesterday we learned that David ruled with justice and equity and that if justice is not blind, it is not equitable. When rulers persistently fail to rule with justice and equity, God himself will step in: “At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity. When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its I who keep steady its pillars” (Psalm 75:2-3).
CONNECTIONS
1. Paul said that God will judge not only those who do evil, but those who give approval to those who practice evil (Romans 1:32). What are some of the evils Paul had in mind (vv.28-32)?
2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and anti-Nazi dissident who died in a German concentration camp is quoted as saying, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak, is to speak. Not to act, is to act.” Is voting a “Christian” act, while speaking out against corruptions in government a political one?
